Juno News - Charlie Kirk assassinated at college debate

00:00:00.480 We are recording today on Thursday, September 11th, 2025.

00:00:06.400 So obviously the big news yesterday was about Charlie Kirk.

00:00:09.520 I'm sure we all have lots to talk about with regards to that story,

00:00:12.780 but it is also the anniversary of September 11th.

00:00:15.280 So I guess I would just ask, do you guys remember where you were on September 11th, 2001?

00:00:20.940 I do. I was at my, I was a child, young child,

00:00:24.920 and I was at my babysitter, Renine, who I called Auntie Renine,

00:00:28.060 but certainly no relation.

00:00:30.040 She was just my best friend's mom who babysat me,

00:00:33.820 and we used to play hockey together, me and that guy.

00:00:36.040 We didn't even play on a team together.

00:00:37.200 We just played street hockey all day when I was at her house.

00:00:42.600 I think I was somewhere in the kind of in the embryo process.

00:00:47.860 I was born in 2002, so I don't have much memory of the event myself,

00:00:51.780 but certainly the post-2001 world is in the world I've only ever known.

00:00:57.440 So definitely I take 9-11 with a very keen interest depending on exactly what we're discussing.

00:01:06.080 The event themselves, the precursor, and of course the post-geopolitical reality

00:01:11.820 with how we got engaged in the Middle East and how air travel and just governments have really grown

00:01:19.580 and everything's changed since that point, that specific point in time.

00:01:23.300 It's a really consequential event for sure.

00:01:26.940 Do you remember where you were when you first learned about 9-11?

00:01:30.640 I think, to be fair with me, I may have heard of 9-11 multiple times throughout my childhood

00:01:35.960 without giving it much attention, but when I was growing up,

00:01:39.920 I actually would frequent New York actually because I had a family living there

00:01:43.280 and I spent some time living there myself as well.

00:01:45.420 So I think when I spent some time in New York as a child around 2008, 2009,

00:01:49.400 I really grasped the reality and grasped the history.

00:01:52.860 When I would sit down at home and I would just watch ABC News Live commercial break

00:01:59.600 and I would see all these commercials about law firms looking for former 9-11 survivors

00:02:05.200 or firefighters that were there that day that have cancer, lung cancer, other damages,

00:02:12.980 and of course trying to get something out of that, I think it's something along the lines of a memorial fund

00:02:18.240 that is out there provided by the government for these victims.

00:02:22.120 So I could understand what a world after 9-11 for a New Yorker's event.

00:02:26.860 Obviously, there were people that had lost family members

00:02:29.740 and people that had experienced some very traumatic events on that day.

00:02:34.900 But again, they're still living with the consequences in terms of families being apart,

00:02:40.700 people dealing with health consequences.

00:02:42.660 I mean, just all the smoke, all the debris, that itself had a massive effect on public health.

00:02:50.260 So when you're in New York, especially during that time, it's only a few years after I was around 2009,

00:02:56.400 so you definitely embrace the reality, the fact, and the history there.

00:03:01.500 I've also visited the memorial multiple times.

00:03:04.000 It's very beautiful, actually, the Freedom Tower and everything else, and the museum.

00:03:08.620 It's a very important part of history to understand, for sure,

00:03:11.200 but not without its controversy and its fair share of conspiracy as well.

00:03:15.520 Yeah, do you guys think we'll be around the campfire in 15 years

00:03:19.320 talking about where we were for the Charlie Kirk assassination, similarly?

00:03:23.520 Anyways, that'll be our first story we'll be discussing today.

00:03:27.040 My name's Isaac Lamour.

00:03:27.900 I'm here with my colleagues, Alex Zoltan and Waleed Tam Tam.

00:03:30.480 Let's hop right into things.

00:03:36.200 Yeah, so obviously, I don't know about you guys, but still reeling a bit from the news yesterday.

00:03:42.460 As you mentioned, Alex, we are recording this on Thursday,

00:03:44.620 so just note that anything we say today is subject to change based on whenever we might end up publishing this.

00:03:50.620 But obviously, Charlie Kirk was brutally assassinated yesterday while doing one of his famous prove-me-wrong campus debates

00:04:02.260 out of nowhere there, and that kind of, similarly to 9-11, which you were just discussing,

00:04:07.800 ground the world to a halt, at least from a media perspective.

00:04:11.680 I don't know if it was like that for normal people, as it would have been with 9-11.

00:04:16.300 But I mean, just so much to talk about with this story and the few details we know.

00:04:22.640 I mean, for example, the FBI, they had someone in custody, but now they don't.

00:04:27.780 And in fact, the FBI is offering a $100,000 USD reward to anyone who gives them any information

00:04:35.320 that could lead to the, not any information, but information that leads to the identification

00:04:40.580 or apprehension of the suspect.

00:04:42.580 So $100,000, I mean, and the fact that this person got away is just unbelievable, really.

00:04:48.600 I mean, we don't know the exact details of the security that Kirk might have had at his events.

00:04:53.320 It's not like there was 100 FBI members there, and this guy just escaped.

00:04:56.740 But as far as we know right now, he was like 200 feet, I think, away on a roof and shot him

00:05:03.320 with some sort of sniper.

00:05:05.180 So obviously, this is at least in some fashion a trained shooter, because I don't think a

00:05:11.280 random person off the street could hit someone in the neck from 200 feet or yards away with

00:05:17.480 a sniper, but I'm no gun expert.

00:05:19.760 And then we're also seeing reports that from legitimate sources, that being Stephen Crowder,

00:05:27.240 I think he got an email saying that there were some sort of transgender and anti-fascist

00:05:31.760 etchings on the bullets that they found, because they did recover the gun and some sort of spare

00:05:37.020 cartridges.

00:05:38.400 So, I mean, I could go on and on, but I mean, this is obviously terrible.

00:05:41.860 Charlie Kirk was a huge proponent of the conservative movement, not just in America, but all around

00:05:48.420 the world, especially in Canada, in North America.

00:05:50.660 I mean, every conservative spokesperson I know probably saw Kirk as a role model, myself

00:05:55.440 included, and I still see him in that way.

00:05:58.020 And we know he had a wife and two young children, three and one years old, who are left behind.

00:06:04.080 I mean, I don't even know what to ask you guys.

00:06:06.220 What are your, I guess, immediate reactions?

00:06:09.940 Because we're just still reacting to this right now.

00:06:13.300 Like, what have you guys kind of been going through with this Kirk assassination?

00:06:18.420 Yeah, I mean, it's horrific.

00:06:28.240 There's really not much more to say than that.

00:06:32.220 I thought I'd be through processing it already, because we just have such a quick news cycle

00:06:38.320 these days, but I think I'm still kind of like in a state of shock a little bit, which is strange

00:06:46.240 because, you know, shootings are so common, you know, not just in the United States, but

00:06:50.880 everywhere.

00:06:52.600 Political assassinations are less common, but, you know, even I just learned recently from

00:06:57.280 this story, I guess, by extension of this story, there was a political assassination in

00:07:00.620 Minnesota, just like a few months ago, which for some reason never came across my newsfeed.

00:07:05.440 I think a lot of people are just discovering that now.

00:07:10.560 Yeah.

00:07:10.920 Another thing, I don't know about you guys, but obviously I saw the video and I, I mean,

00:07:15.060 I say I wish I hadn't, but it was almost inevitable.

00:07:17.560 It was everywhere and people are saying, stop sharing the video just out of respect.

00:07:20.600 But it was, it was obviously terrible to see.

00:07:23.360 Yeah, Waleed, were you kind of in the same spot where you're, you're kind of world just 0.52

00:07:27.940 ground to a halt there?

00:07:29.680 Absolutely.

00:07:30.320 I mean, I mean, the reason why you had awkward silence for a moment with Alex and I seeing

00:07:34.700 who would answer the question first was frankly, I think for all of us as journalists, it's

00:07:38.820 a shocking moment, not just because of the graphic and the tragic nature of it, but just

00:07:43.780 how, I guess you could say relatable that environment is for us growing up.

00:07:47.800 I guess all of us have had some sort of a political discourse in our life on college

00:07:53.360 campuses or off college campuses, you know, talking about the culture war, talking about

00:07:58.280 the things that, you know, Kirk would often talk about on his videos, at his live events.

00:08:02.760 So, you know, that, that environment for us is not an environment that it is hard to imagine.

00:08:07.200 You know, this isn't some foreign land with a very different concept.

00:08:10.440 This is what we've gone through growing up.

00:08:13.140 This is how we got to our positions as journalists today, as we engage in civil discourse.

00:08:17.800 We engage with asking questions and answering questions and debating topics, those that

00:08:22.740 we are very passionate about, and those that just happen to be on the news.

00:08:26.180 We've been part of the kind of, you could say, the TPUSA culture without, you know, being

00:08:31.720 involved directly with that organization or even in the discourse in the U.S., but just

00:08:36.820 the culture of left, right students, just that environment, which I think is very, very

00:08:44.420 important and something that I think Kirk brought a lot of value to because, you know, a lot

00:08:48.780 of people, and I think this is something that's even happened to him in videos before, would

00:08:52.520 kind of ask him, you know, what do you actually do?

00:08:54.700 I mean, what is, what do you make, how do you make a living?

00:08:57.140 You know, what is your job?

00:08:58.760 And Kirk would reply sometimes along the lines of, you know, I come here, I engage on campus,

00:09:03.060 I engage in civil, respectful discourse on the issues that matter the most to me and

00:09:08.200 to our generation, and, you know, obviously talking about political issues and societal

00:09:12.600 issues and, you know, religion and economics as well.

00:09:17.180 You know, I think for a lot of us, we can overlook those issues in our day-to-day life,

00:09:21.900 and I think with Kirk and, you know, his group and his students that he would lead throughout

00:09:26.580 these sessions for years have brought kind of a heightened sense of awareness, a lot

00:09:33.080 of people behind the corner of engaging these topics rather than just thinking about them

00:09:38.520 passively and being outspoken, talking about them, not just holding these feelings and thoughts

00:09:43.400 to yourself.

00:09:44.380 So again, when you see this tragic event to happen to this individual, obviously, you know,

00:09:48.840 there's tragedies happening every day, but you're talking about the relationship that

00:09:52.300 we have with that individual and with his purpose, how much we, you know, either find

00:09:58.400 inspiration from or we seek guidance from that kind of content, you know, when you're thinking

00:10:03.280 about what I want to write about, what I want to talk about, you know, you're probably on

00:10:07.060 social media because that's the best place to fish for new ideas and understand what the

00:10:11.860 discourse of the day is.

00:10:13.720 And, you know, Kirk is, I think there's not a day where I spend more than 20 minutes on

00:10:17.780 Instagram where I don't see a reel with some background music and subtitles of him

00:10:22.280 talking back and forth with a student.

00:10:24.340 It's just, it's been so popular and so much part of a pop culture for sure.

00:10:28.540 I think that's like, sorry, Isaac, I'm going to jump in here.

00:10:31.500 I think it's one of the things that makes this story so troubling and difficult to digest

00:10:35.240 is that if you go back in time to when Charlie Kirk first started coming across people's

00:10:40.460 Instagram reels, that coincided with a time when left-wing politics really just completely

00:10:45.980 took over university campuses.

00:10:47.540 And, and so people were really silenced.

00:10:50.760 And so he kind of became a voice for not only like a silent majority, but a silenced majority

00:10:57.640 where he was, he was brave enough to say a lot of things that people weren't brave enough

00:11:01.540 to say because, you know, they were, they wanted to pass their courses, frankly, and appease

00:11:07.060 their, their leftist university professors.

00:11:09.920 And so I think that's just one of the things that makes this really troubling, difficult to

00:11:13.080 digest.

00:11:13.560 Yeah.

00:11:14.280 And speaking on that from a Canadian angle, Alex, over the last week or so, I think a

00:11:18.260 poll came out showing that the majority of students on Canadian campuses are scared to

00:11:22.900 share their true beliefs.

00:11:23.980 So, I mean, a Charlie Kirk type person in Canada, for example, would be more needed now than ever.

00:11:30.160 But I, obviously we talked about the horrible video, but I also saw a great one yesterday,

00:11:35.740 which was a montage of his clips during the presidential election there and, and Kamala

00:11:42.660 Harris supporters were approaching him and he would just challenge them and say, why would,

00:11:47.120 why do you want to vote for Kamala?

00:11:48.140 For which they had, as you can imagine, little, little, little to say, but they'd debate back

00:11:53.040 and forth.

00:11:53.440 He'd present the evidence and, and he'd do what he was so good at doing.

00:11:56.320 And then in the end, he'd ask them, who are you voting for now?

00:11:57.920 And they would say, Trump, Trump.

00:11:59.900 And, and, and, and, you know, it just, he, he, he, he, he served as such a strong person

00:12:06.220 for the conservative movement.

00:12:07.200 And I, I did want to ask you guys about that.

00:12:09.180 Obviously we, we perhaps no one bigger for the conservative movement in the, in the U S,

00:12:14.900 especially on the college campuses than Charlie Kirk and how, how big he is, how worldly he

00:12:18.800 is, but I'm just curious.

00:12:20.500 And I wanted to ask if you think that just, I was looking for silver linings this morning

00:12:25.540 and this one came into my mind.

00:12:26.640 For example, Alex, do you think that he could even be bigger than he was after his life

00:12:30.860 now?

00:12:31.220 For example, personally, I'm just thinking about this and how much of an inspiration he

00:12:34.740 serves to me to, to move the conservative movement forward in Canada.

00:12:37.760 And I know that there are millions like me, or I'm assuming there are millions like me

00:12:41.800 across the world who are going to be inspired for years to come from, from Kirk and what

00:12:45.880 he accomplished.

00:12:47.640 Well, yeah, people are typically immortalized when they die young, um, high profile people.

00:12:52.480 And so in a sense, you know, whoever did this, um, whatever individual or

00:12:56.620 persons that did this, uh, has kind of made him a bit of a martyr for the free speech

00:13:01.240 movement.

00:13:02.160 Um, I think that's something that his family can take some solace in because I think if

00:13:06.060 there's anything worth giving your life over, it's the right to speak freely and for your

00:13:11.000 children to speak freely.

00:13:11.920 So I think that's really brave and, uh, yeah, but I just hope that the, the reaction to this

00:13:18.840 does not create an environment in which people feel afraid to speak because, um, you know,

00:13:25.020 it's really important, uh, not just for political discourse, but also for each individual's mental

00:13:30.800 health to, to speak freely and say what's on their mind.

00:13:33.960 Um, so, um, I, I also would denounce like any calls to, for violence in response to this.

00:13:41.760 I don't think that that's appropriate either, especially when we don't know, um, as of Thursday,

00:13:45.940 September 11th, 2025, who the shooter is, I think that'd be very presumptive and preemptive

00:13:51.240 people.

00:13:52.260 Um, but I also, uh, I'll reserve judgment because anger is a very predictable initial step in the

00:13:58.000 grieving process and have people digest traumatic events.

00:14:02.080 So, and Waleed, just looking at right-wing versus left-wing discourse and the kind of

00:14:08.740 political battle going on, not only in the States, but worldwide, uh, do you, do you think

00:14:12.800 that this assassination will change anything in, in how that goes forward, uh, on either

00:14:18.420 side?

00:14:20.840 Yeah, for sure.

00:14:21.800 I mean, I think that there will be a part of, let's say the more responsible, mature

00:14:26.520 left, should there be a growth in that demographic that, let's just be honest, some people have

00:14:32.860 to be a bit more reserved with their commentary.

00:14:35.300 There might be kind of recent, resensible process of people gaining their humanity back, especially

00:14:42.240 those that have opted to demonize those with different views.

00:14:46.140 I guess, I mean, when you hear that language of Nazis and, and, and, you know, all kinds of

00:14:50.800 other titles of bigotry, I think there's going to be a lot more room to etch that kind of

00:14:56.060 rhetoric out of the mainstream discourse, at least I think for the right wing on the side,

00:15:01.560 which Kirk represented for the most part, I think there will be both good and bad.

00:15:07.540 I mean, like Alex mentioned, this is also my concern as well as, will there be a chilling

00:15:12.700 effect for people?

00:15:13.660 I don't think the average student as much, but for, let's say the Kirk's counterparts,

00:15:18.720 you know, other people that would sit down, Michael Knowles, you know, all those other

00:15:24.940 talking heads that have, you know, common, you know, table side, because one of the things

00:15:33.380 I liked about, I loved actually, and I still love about these kinds of groups, you know,

00:15:38.480 TPSA and other conservative societies is that they engaging with people on the street in public

00:15:45.720 parks, or in, you know, college campuses, and that's the, the physical manifestation of the

00:15:52.100 public forum.

00:15:53.220 That's, you know, where someone walking by that has no interest in the issue, and someone

00:15:57.320 that happens to finish their class that have prepared the, you know, the perfect gotcha question,

00:16:03.260 and they're all ready to fire on and represent their side, and you never know how it actually

00:16:07.780 comes off when they hit the mic.

00:16:09.060 So, I mean, I don't want to lose that environment, and definitely we lost, you know, perhaps one

00:16:15.500 of the pioneers of this political environment, the political campus sandbox.

00:16:21.340 I think we lost one of those pioneers yesterday, and that's obviously very sad, but I do believe

00:16:27.000 there'll be a renewed sense of appreciation, because it's part of human nature to only appreciate

00:16:31.920 or feel grateful for something when it's removed, and this applies to people as well.

00:16:36.380 So, I think that a lot of, a lot of folks will definitely be much more appreciative of

00:16:41.040 the work that is done by college groups, student groups that, you know, can push forward their

00:16:47.460 narratives, agendas, causes, and passions through public civil discourse.

00:16:52.800 It's a very important lesson for us, and definitely looking forward to seeing how we can all play

00:16:57.780 a part of that, you know, as journalists, you know, engaging those circles and hearing what

00:17:02.180 students and folks on the street have to say, because their voices matter, and conversations

00:17:06.960 are, I think, the best way to open up our differences and resolve them if possible.

00:17:12.640 Yeah, Kirk had a quote along those lines, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember it

00:17:16.160 perfectly, but he basically was saying, when you lose public discourse, what you get is violence,

00:17:20.580 so we certainly can't let this act of violence lead to losing public discourse, because that

00:17:26.640 would only lead to things getting worse. Not better, but we could sit on this all day,

00:17:33.100 probably talk for hours. I mean, there's just so much to discuss. But instead, let's talk

00:17:38.120 about guns in Canada, which are having a huge transformation, apparently, because Mark Carney

00:17:45.820 on Wednesday was doing a podcast in Edmonton amid the Liberal retreat with a popular Edmonton

00:17:53.120 podcaster there, and he called the gun ban voluntary, the Liberal gun confiscation program

00:17:57.640 he called voluntary, which, as far as I understand, was the first time that type of language had

00:18:02.820 ever been used, despite this gun ban, of course, being in effect for five years now. And then

00:18:07.980 I actually went downtown today, just outside of the Liberal retreat there, and I found Public

00:18:12.900 Safety Minister Gary Anandesongri on the street corner, went up to him, and I asked him about

00:18:17.440 that. So let's play that clip and see what he had to say.

00:18:19.960 Excuse me, Mr. Anandesongri, can you just clarify the comments Carney made yesterday about

00:18:24.120 the gun buyback program being voluntary? Are you changing the program?

00:18:28.460 Well, the program is going to be launched soon.

00:18:32.780 Is it going to be voluntary now?

00:18:34.980 It's always been voluntary.

00:18:37.720 How is that? Can you just clarify those comments? Is it possible? Because people are,

00:18:42.360 all the gun organizations I'm seeing are super confused. They're saying, is it voluntary all

00:18:45.540 of a sudden? Because from what I can tell, the CCFR, for example, they're all saying that

00:18:49.600 it's been mandatory.

00:18:51.780 Why don't you contact my office and we'll be able to...

00:18:54.860 You have no comments on that for today?

00:19:01.760 Yeah, sorry about the video recording there. I was just trying to get good audio, which I

00:19:07.140 did, which is important. But you might be able to have told how confused I was with his

00:19:11.700 response, which is why I said all I had to say was, how is that? Like, what do you mean

00:19:15.880 it's voluntary, man? For the last five years, we've been at the... Of course, this is a

00:19:20.240 mandatory thing. You're going to confiscate the guns or else, per the public laws, you're

00:19:27.640 going to jail for five years for possessing an illegal firearm. So I don't understand how

00:19:32.660 now they're calling it voluntary because that is a complete change of pace. But hey, Ananda

00:19:39.600 Sangri stood by Carney's comments there. Although in the past, Ananda Sangri has been called out

00:19:46.920 by actually former True North journalist Andrew Lawton, who's now a Conservative MP, because

00:19:51.980 he was debating him in the House of Commons and came to realize that Ananda Sangri did not

00:19:56.420 know basic things about his file, basic things about Canadian gun laws. So it could be that

00:20:01.520 he too is wrong. He said to reach out to his office there, which of course I did, called

00:20:05.720 them, emailed them, no response. So we might have to just wait and see how this develops

00:20:10.160 over the coming weeks. True North kind of breaking this. I mean, Alex, do you think there is a

00:20:16.580 world where this is actually voluntary? Or is this just some sort of liberal gaslighting?

00:20:21.900 Like, oh yeah, it's voluntary, but you're going to go to jail?

00:20:25.220 Well, if it was always voluntary, that might explain why they haven't confiscated any guns.

00:20:33.120 This program is, how old is this program? Doesn't it? Yeah, it's 20, it came from an order in council

00:20:37.740 in 2020. And eventually the list has now grown to over 2,500 firearms being on that banned list

00:20:43.720 and costs, which again, they haven't confiscated any guns, but they're saying costs are expected to

00:20:48.200 be around $2 billion. So a lot of money for, for no confiscation there. I remember there was a big

00:20:52.780 controversy with Bill Blair when he was the public safety minister, if my memory serves me correctly.

00:20:57.060 And he was kind of exploiting the, the tragedy that happened with the mass shooting in Nova Scotia

00:21:02.400 to push through this gun back gun buyback program is what they call it, but it's really a confiscation

00:21:07.560 program. Yeah. You can't really have a voluntary confiscation program. Isn't that just like a

00:21:12.680 paradox? Like that doesn't even make sense. Yeah. The, the executive director of the CCFR,

00:21:20.540 Tracy Wilson, she commented a bit on that. Um, but yeah, no, basically, uh, essentially she said,

00:21:25.820 quote, it's not a voluntary program or a buyback as the liberals in the media have happily called it.

00:21:30.880 It is a confiscation and threat of imprisonment. And then she said, Carney has the gall to call it

00:21:37.220 an opportunity for licensed law abiding firearms owners to turn over their legally purchased property.

00:21:42.080 I mean, and, uh, furthermore, I do want to go a bit deeper into Carney's comments there,

00:21:46.500 because he said, um, that this doesn't target assault rifles. He said this that are, sorry,

00:21:53.840 sorry. He said this exclusively targets assault rifles, which is of course not true. Uh, Rod,

00:21:58.660 Rod Giltaka, uh, the, the CEO of the, the Canadian coalition for firearms rights, he said, uh, this was

00:22:05.760 just a lie. He said, quote, there were no assault weapons banned since May 1st, 2020. Every one of these

00:22:12.980 firearms were for hunting or sports shooting. That's why they were legal in the first place.

00:22:17.220 Because I'll remind people, all of these guns were legally purchased by, by Canadians. Uh, and he 0.97

00:22:22.100 said, Giltaka did quote, the lies of these people are outrageous. So, I mean, yeah, we'll lead. Uh, I

00:22:28.360 mean, what's really to say, uh, do you, do you think that it could be voluntary? I mean, uh, are,

00:22:35.280 are they just blowing smoke here?

00:22:36.740 Well, you know, it reminds me of the time that Trudeau would speak into the media after COVID

00:22:43.740 and talking about, you know, and speaking specifically to the narrative behind the vaccine

00:22:48.780 mandates and the vaccine passports was, you know, no, we never actually forced people, you know, we

00:22:53.700 just locked them out of restaurants, bars, public spaces from being able to work. Uh, we've basically

00:23:01.920 taken out all of the purpose to their lives and all of the purpose to their passions. And we've

00:23:07.760 said to them that you can't really do much. Oh, and also we didn't allow them to leave the country in 1.00

00:23:13.120 any way possible. So it's, it's a really, it's a war of deception here. Um, so I, I don't think this

00:23:21.200 program is, is by any means, you know, optional. It's, that's absolutely the course of why the nature of

00:23:27.680 the laws applied on those specific firearms, but I definitely think this is kind of where they've

00:23:33.840 tried to, you know, like, let's say retract themselves in their approach by adopting a bit

00:23:40.400 more of a lenient rhetoric, because at the end of the day, they're not speaking to gun owners.

00:23:45.760 They're not even hearing much from gun owners, which is why they've gotten to such a, they could

00:23:50.720 say a tone deaf policy talking about, you know, banning specific firearms, which are often mostly

00:23:57.680 owned legally by well-trained, sophisticated, responsible gun owners that have caught through

00:24:03.680 the most sophisticated hula hoops to get those guns legally acquired. And they get their training

00:24:09.920 course completed all assigned by the RCMP while allowing the RCMP to engage their property, observe

00:24:18.560 how they store the weapons and how they operate. I mean, the fact of the matter is you're not going

00:24:23.280 to be able to deal with crime when you're dealing with law-abiding citizens directly and uniquely.

00:24:28.400 You're dealing with people that want to follow the law, not the people who won't. And that's

00:24:34.080 a very important part. So I definitely think if they're going to make any progress in the public

00:24:37.840 security file as it relates to firearms, which there should be definitely a concern for Canadians.

00:24:42.720 We've seen a rise of gun violence across the country, especially in the GTA area.

00:24:47.520 I think if that's going to change, it's going to come down to the weapon smuggling happening,

00:24:52.320 gun crime from organized criminal groups. And I think Pierre Paliyev spoke about this topic

00:24:59.600 earlier today, discussing a few of those thoughts and ideas. So we might be able to circle back to that

00:25:05.920 topic later on.

00:25:06.800 Yeah, Galtaka suggested one way they might be framing this as optional, because again,

00:25:12.160 we still have zero details on what that even means. But he said, quote,

00:25:15.520 I don't believe it will be optional. Maybe they'll say, keep your firearms,

00:25:19.440 don't get paid for them, but you'll have to deactivate them, weld them shut, and therefore

00:25:23.600 make them useless. Not really optional. One thing I just wanted to touch on was Smith,

00:25:28.880 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith recently said, essentially, she's not going to let this happen

00:25:33.680 in the province. She's telling the provincial police forces, the municipal police forces,

00:25:37.760 they cannot participate in this. She said Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe is going down the same line.

00:25:43.440 So Alex, just wanted to touch you quickly, ask you quickly, if you think,

00:25:47.200 if the Liberals do proceed with this, do you think other provinces will follow suit and essentially

00:25:51.040 just say, no, we're not doing this, it's our jurisdiction, and people will be good?

00:25:57.120 I'm not really an expert on the jurisdictional divisions on the issue of gun control. I mean,

00:26:02.560 to some extent, when it comes to municipal policing, you know, there's a third level of

00:26:06.480 government involved. I think that, you know, I hate to like bring this back to Charlie Kirk,

00:26:11.360 but I guess it's just, you know, top of mind right now. The thing I find interesting about this

00:26:16.240 news that we have about the voluntary buyback program with regards to the context of the

00:26:21.280 Charlie Kirk thing is I had people call me yesterday who are not even political people

00:26:26.240 to talk to me about the Charlie Kirk thing. I was surprised that they even knew who Charlie Kirk was.

00:26:30.080 And I heard from many people, including actually some folks who are political and on the right,

00:26:35.920 who said, you know, this is one of these weird stories where it actually kind of makes me glad

00:26:40.160 I'm in Canada versus the United States. And so I imagine that at a time like this,

00:26:45.920 across the political spectrum, believe it or not, there's probably more openness to more gun control

00:26:52.000 in Canada than you could probably have at any other time in recent history. But nobody has any

00:26:56.960 confidence that the liberals can do this effectively. I mean, that's the issue. This

00:27:00.560 is the party that has a gun buyback program that they spent billions of dollars on and they haven't

00:27:04.240 confiscated a single gun. This is the party that has a dental program that provides no dental care.

00:27:09.360 This is the government that provides a school food program that hasn't produced a single ham sandwich.

00:27:14.800 So even if people were in support of the principle of, you know, reducing gun violence, I mean,

00:27:20.720 that's a great goal. I think we all want to pursue that. Nobody has any confidence that this

00:27:24.400 government can pull it off. Yeah, Alexander. I understand the reaction from an emotional

00:27:29.520 perspective, but realistically, it would do nothing because as we know, every single jurisdiction,

00:27:34.800 when they're reporting their crime statistics, we're talking about the 90th percentile of guns used

00:27:38.720 in these crimes are illegally smuggled. So banning legally, legally purchased firearms like

00:27:44.240 bolt action rifles aren't going to do anything. Well, of course, they're smuggling them in.

00:27:48.320 And the vast majority of gun crimes are committed with guns that are not legally owned.

00:27:52.240 That's what I'm saying. So if you really wanted to reduce gun crime,

00:27:54.720 I think the smartest and easiest thing you could do is just increase mandatory minimums for owning

00:27:59.680 an illegal gun. Maybe, but we could, again, be in this can of worms all day long. Instead,

00:28:09.200 let's shift to a different Alberta story, which Walid actually covered, not me. It might surprise you.

00:28:15.680 But yeah, this is regarding the insurance rate caps. So what was going on there, Walid?

00:28:19.760 Future reference, Isaac, because I'm looking at Alberta as a future home. I have a flag

00:28:27.600 draped behind me. So I definitely will be covering more Alberta issues going forward

00:28:32.080 with or without your engagement there.

00:28:34.240 We'd welcome you with open arms, Walid.

00:28:37.200 Thank you. Thank you. You guys have made a fantastic province of yourselves.

00:28:40.800 But on the issue, I talked about the care first model and pending model that it's coming soon

00:28:50.800 and the potential reforms and consequences around their new system. I spoke to a Calgary area lawyer,

00:28:57.440 Stephen. I can't get his last name perfect, but it was Francophone. He and I spoke. I wanted to get a

00:29:03.520 consumer angle, industry angle to this story. The industry, almost by unanimous consent,

00:29:10.800 is in favor of the government removing the cap on interest rate hikes, essentially.

00:29:17.760 Or, yeah, the hike of, I believe it's 5% annually for the general, and then 2.5% for natural disasters

00:29:30.400 and other related elements. So right now, the insurance rate rate is capped. The increase is

00:29:37.840 capped at 7.5% per year for 15% after two years. That's what the government has put in place. Now,

00:29:45.040 if that cap were to be removed, lawyers like Stephen and many other consumers argue that the industry,

00:29:52.480 the insurance industry that is, would go above and beyond in overcharging consumers in Alberta.

00:29:58.480 And of course, there's another consequence to this, that with the care-first model,

00:30:04.080 that you would have a situation where courts or at least consumers would no longer be able to go to

00:30:09.600 courts to sue and would instead be forced to use an industry-funded mechanism to get to claims and

00:30:17.440 compensation apparently much faster. But there's always ethical doubts when you're dealing with a

00:30:23.120 system of refereeing that is funded by the participants themselves, which in this case includes the

00:30:29.040 insurance industry. So a lot of ethical questions around why and how this reform and what kind of

00:30:35.600 consequences it can bring about. I think consumers for the most part would be happier if Daniel Smith's

00:30:42.160 government kept the rate hike cap. And of course, for the most, I even saw public polling, the UCP

00:30:51.200 supporters in Alberta are among the most critical of the insurance industry. I think it's part of the

00:30:56.560 reason why is because they deal with it. They own properties, they drive cars, multiple cars. And of course,

00:31:02.560 that comes with a great expense for sure on the industry side for insurance. But I think

00:31:08.480 her supporters would be very disappointed seeing her go in a direction that would give the industry a

00:31:14.400 leg up over the consumers where they already have to pay. I mean, insurance is not a commodity. They

00:31:19.360 must pay for insurance. And as my interviewees said to me as well, if this was not a profitable

00:31:26.560 business model as it exists today, if the Insurance Bureau was actually honest about the fact that they

00:31:32.960 cannot make a profit out of the current cap, then they would be out of the province already. They

00:31:38.240 would leave for elsewhere. The insurance companies are still around, operating, still making fantastic

00:31:44.640 profits. Unfortunately, with that being said, they are still notoriously known to be a little bit

00:31:51.920 hawkish on consumers. I think last year alone, $3.1 million in Alberta was the total figure of

00:32:00.640 overcharges by insurance companies, at least the ones that were found and accounted for

00:32:06.240 in a report that I had read. So consumers are at odds with the insurance industry. And of course,

00:32:12.080 it's up to seeing the future will behold if the UCP lays down more on the side of consumers

00:32:19.760 or the side of industry. As always, there's a balance to it. But I think for now, consumers are

00:32:25.600 quite concerned with what the future has to hold. Yeah, well, if you're planning to move to Alberta,

00:32:30.320 you should know we are getting gouged, I think, on insurance rates, at least for cars. I think we

00:32:34.720 pay among the highest in the country. And this isn't provincial, but my property taxes too are

00:32:39.280 disgusting. And now they want to build all these bike lanes. I had this guy come up and he's like,

00:32:42.800 do you even bike? It's like, dude, I pay property taxes. Who are you to determine where those taxes go

00:32:47.440 to? Where do you think the city's getting the money by increasing my property taxes? If you know what I

00:32:51.120 paid in property taxes, you'd be disgusted. So I mean, again, I could go into an absolute flurry

00:32:57.200 or rage on insurance. But instead of doing that, I'll let you talk about Canadians who might have

00:33:03.360 been in a bit of a rage there, Alex, because we saw hundreds, if not like 1000, show up to this

00:33:09.120 protest outside of courthouse, I think. Yeah, what was going on there, Alex? Yeah, so this was outside of

00:33:14.880 the Robert S.K. Welch courthouse in St. Catharines, Ontario, actually looks like a pretty nice little

00:33:21.520 town, based off of the footage that we have from our friend, friend of the show, Kareem Assad.

00:33:27.520 And tons of people showed up. I said it was hundreds. Some people estimate that it may have

00:33:32.000 even been more than hundreds. They were protesting. A lot of them were there under the assumption that

00:33:37.440 it was a bail hearing for a gentleman named Daniel Senecal, or as he likes to go by Danny Senecal,

00:33:44.640 apparently. There's some rumors going around that this individual identifies as a woman,

00:33:51.040 presumably with a penis. I know that doesn't make sense, but whatever, I'm just the reporter. 0.99

00:33:56.640 To some, it makes sense, Alex. Yeah. Can we actually just run that clip quick before we get...

00:34:02.000 Yeah, sure. Go ahead.

00:34:02.800 Can we just run that clip?

00:34:14.640 Just one thing I wanted to say quick, Alex. While that clip was running, I just looked up the

00:34:36.160 population of St. Catharines, 140,000, so a pretty small town or whatever it is.

00:34:42.640 For that many people to show up, certainly some people came even maybe from out of town. Yeah.

00:34:48.640 Willie, you're making an expression like you know something about St. Catharines that we should know

00:34:52.880 about. I mean, just in defense of our viewers from St. Catharines in Ontario, I mean,

00:34:57.920 you know, whether it's a city or a town, I think it's a beautiful town. Just what surprises me from the

00:35:03.040 video was the fact that I'm looking at the proportion of people there. So I think the

00:35:06.800 majority of people are actually from the local community. I'm also interested about the demographics

00:35:10.880 there. It looks like a lot of older folks with some youth. So there's a mix of age there for sure.

00:35:16.000 So that's, I think, a very important part because, you know, we heard from Pierre Pauli

00:35:20.160 have talked about jail, not bail. I'll let Alex start the conversation here for this story. But

00:35:24.320 I know that the more people showing up for this kind of protest event, the more you understand just how

00:35:31.040 chronic the failure of the justice system is these days. So but St. Catharines is a beautiful

00:35:36.080 town or you could say a small city. I think it has its own city hall and its own mayor. So I think

00:35:42.000 you can say it's a small city in Ontario. Yeah, it's an amazing turnout. I think that, you know,

00:35:48.080 I'm obviously not a mind reader. I don't know exactly what was in these people's hearts, but I think

00:35:51.440 that most of them were there because they are fed up with our criminal justice system. Just a little bit

00:35:57.200 more background, this individual who was having their courtroom appearance. And I attended the

00:36:00.800 appearance remotely. He was previously charged with sexual assault offenses back in 2021, I believe,

00:36:09.600 is his first offense. The details of that are that case are covered by a publication ban to protect

00:36:14.960 the identity of the victim. He was let out early and also added to the registered sex offender list,

00:36:21.760 which in Canada is not on public record. So I don't really understand why we have this list,

00:36:28.080 other than to perhaps help police more closely monitor individuals who are higher risk to the

00:36:32.400 public. I personally think that, you know, maybe we should have some sunshine law reforms and that

00:36:36.240 those lists should be public so that people have a better capability of protecting themselves and their

00:36:41.520 family from potential predators. In any case, this was not a bail hearing. It was what they call

00:36:47.520 a remand video conferencing appearance. I don't believe he actually has had a formal

00:36:54.160 bail hearing. I think that we'll be getting close to something approximating a formal bail hearing,

00:36:59.360 probably in November. The wheels of justice grind slowly. In any case, Senecal is still in custody, 0.71

00:37:04.800 but there is a lot of rumors going around that he wants to be put into a female prison, which just 0.71

00:37:10.640 stokes more outrage. I should also add, of course, you know, I don't want to get too detailed into the

00:37:16.560 crime that he committed most recently. But the allegation is, is that he violently assaulted a

00:37:21.040 child. And so I think it's really, really amazing and great that so many people showed up in defense

00:37:27.120 of that child, because as we all know, children are not really capable of defending themselves.

00:37:31.680 So that's where, you know, good law abiding citizens who care about the vulnerable come out and

00:37:38.160 do their best to affect change. And I should also know that in Canada, we do not have elected judges

00:37:42.800 and our lawmakers have only spent 20 days in the House of Commons this year. So when people want to

00:37:48.240 affect change, really protest is their only option at this point. So I'm really glad that they were

00:37:51.920 there. And I think it's a good thing. Yeah. And Alex, obviously, we know Conservative

00:37:56.880 leader Pierre Pelleve has said numerous times, I think that biological women should be in women's 0.98

00:38:02.560 prisons and biological men should be in men's prisons. But if I recall correctly, Alex, it was actually you 0.96

00:38:07.440 who asked Carney about his thoughts on that. And just remind me again, what he had to say there, Alex?

00:38:13.680 Well, he said that there were two biological sexes. And he, I think correctly, to some extent, 0.97

00:38:19.680 he drew a distinction between gender and sex. But I asked if there are two biological sexes,

00:38:24.560 do you believe that biological women are entitled to their own spaces, including prisons? And he said,

00:38:29.120 as a general objective, yes. Unfortunately, we've seen zero movement on whether or not those reforms

00:38:35.200 are going to take place. Yeah, as a general objective, yes, except that's not how the law

00:38:39.680 is in Canada. And I haven't changed it. So really, how do you really feel? Because if you were passionate

00:38:43.840 about this, I'm sure it would be changed. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else to say about that.

00:38:52.800 It's a great, like you said, Alex, that was a great point there that the House of Commons has sat for

00:38:57.280 20 days. And obviously, we can't change the laws. I mean, we have so many examples of laws people are

00:39:02.240 calling to be changed. Alex's Canada laws, all types of voting laws, all types of laws that affect

00:39:07.120 us nationwide, but it can't be done if Parliament isn't sitting. So we'll have to see what happens

00:39:13.440 when the House of Commons resumes here very, very briefly, or very shortly, sorry, not briefly.

00:39:18.400 But anyways, I'm Isaac Lamoure. I'd like to thank my colleagues, Alex Zoltan and Waleed Tam Tam

00:39:22.400 for today's show. And remember, everything you heard today was off the record.

00:39:25.360 As you mentioned, sorry, Waleed, you go just quickly here, you mentioned the registered sex

00:39:35.680 offenders lists. And I'm just wondering whether you know this, you may not. But in other countries

00:39:40.000 that have these lists, like the US, for example, do I don't, I think it'd be a bit too obtrusive

00:39:45.520 if they had the people's addresses on there, because they might be getting attacked. But like,

00:39:49.200 if a registered sex offender moved into your neighborhood and was your next door neighbor,

00:39:52.160 like, would they have to, by law, tell you? Is that a thing?

00:39:57.680 It varies depending on where you are. I don't think that by law, there's anywhere where they

00:40:02.480 would have to give you a public notice, to the best of my knowledge. But there are registered

00:40:06.400 sex offenders lists where, you know, they will post the person's address. And I know that because

00:40:11.280 there's a website called Inmates Connects Canada, where different Canadian prisoners, you know,

00:40:17.360 that you can find like pen pals and stuff. And one of them is in the States. And the only way I was

00:40:21.520 able to find any information on their crimes was because they were on the registered sex offender

00:40:25.120 list and it lists their address. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was just curious, because you know,

00:40:31.440 you never know a sex offender moves onto your block, it'd be nice to know if you have children,

00:40:34.800 right? Like realistically? Yeah, of course, especially in Canada, when we can't lock them

00:40:40.000 up. I mean, walking around, right? I mean, it's the worst of both worlds. I mean, I totally, I get the

00:40:46.560 idea behind wanting to have a legal system that believes that people are, have issues that are

00:40:50.720 remediable. But if you're going to have that, then you should also, you know, balance public safety by

00:40:57.120 telling society that you're releasing a bunch of prisoners into their, into their neighborhoods.

00:41:03.200 Yeah, the only things I see around here are, hey, sorry, we're releasing this,

00:41:07.760 this murderer, this very dangerous individual, we can't keep them in prison, we're releasing them,

00:41:11.840 this person is a public danger, and they're being released. I mean, you see it so often.

Juno News - September 13, 2025

Charlie Kirk assassinated at college debate

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